Newsletter Dec. 3, 2022

The Parish Council and I would like to have an informal parish general meeting on Sunday December 4th (tomorrow) during our fellowship time. Things were a little crazy the past souple of years and so we haven’t met in awhile. We would like to share with you the status of the parish and hear from you all any topics or questions.

I would like to create the opportunity to deepen / expand our spiritual life. I am going to start with a men’s group because there has already been some expressed interest. However, I am planning also to develop and start a similar group for Women. From the reading that I have been doing in this regard, it is clear that men and women experience and express their spiritualtity differently and that it is there beneficial to both that unique settings exist for both. I need to hear input from all of you. Please help me discern and formulate what these groups will function / look like. Let me hear from you!

For those who have volunteered for these ministries: Thank you!!! I have posted the schedules for next year on the web site:

Prosphora bakers:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Prosphora/Docs/prosphora sched 2023 web.pdf

Readers:
https://stjfc.org/Pages/Ministries/Altar/Docs/epistle readers for 2023.pdf

The Nativity Fast began on Tuesday Nov. 15.

This Fast is divided into two periods: The first is November 15th through December 19th when the traditional fasting discipline (no meat, poultry, eggs, dairy, fish, wine, and olive oil) is observed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with katalysis for wine and olive oil (some also permit fish) on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and for fish, wine, and olive oil on Saturdays and Sundays. The second is the period of the Forefeast, December 20th through 24th, when the traditional fasting discipline is observed Monday through Friday, with katalysis for wine and olive oil on Saturday and Sunday.

(katalysis means change or exception …)

Please remember that our full calendar continues to be available at our parish web site. Here is a link:
http://stjfc.org/Pages/Calendar/calendar.php

Epistle: ST. PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIANS 3:23-29; 4:1-5

Brethren, before faith came, we were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should be revealed. So that the law was our custodian until Christ came, that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a custodian; for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better than a slave, though he is the owner of all the estate; but he is under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental spirits of the universe. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Gospel: LUKE 13:10-17

At that time, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity for eighteen years; she was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity.” And he laid his hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and she praised God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” As he said this, all his adversaries were put to shame; and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

Broken Communion
Fr. Stephen Freeman

The holidays can make it all too poignant: the terrible fact of broken communion. Often, our festivities bring us into close contact with some (few or many) whom we most commonly avoid. An uncle, an aunt, a brother, a parent whose relationship is marked with pain, misunderstanding, shame, and various other torments. Statistics say that these times (particularly Thanksgiving to Christmas) are frequently marred by things we would otherwise avoid. The holidays do not break our communion, but our close proximity often reveals it.

…

The truth of the Church is found in the Eucharist – indeed, we only truly exist as a eucharistic community. And it is in considering the nature of the Eucharist that we see the true nature of our own being.

The Church gathers, not as a sociological phenomenon, not as a community of the like-minded, but as the Body of Christ that is a small portion and foretaste of Christ’s reconciliation of the world to God. If it is true that Christ was made “to be sin for us,” then, in Him, we also “become sin” for others, that is, we do not separate ourselves as though we pray from a place above and apart from them. In the Eucharist, we are the voice of the world, of “all things.” This is the very nature of reconciliation – that we gather all things together within ourselves, within Christ.

Read the entire article:
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2022/11/25/broken-communion/